On the day that you read this article, 200 species of life on Earth (plants, birds, animals, fish, amphibians, insects, reptiles) will cease to exist. Tomorrow, another 200 species will vanish forever.
The human onslaught to destroy life on Earth is unprecedented in Earth’s history. Planet Earth is now experiencing its sixth mass extinction event and Homo sapiens is the cause. Moreover, this mass extinction event is accelerating and is so comprehensive in its impact that the piecemeal measures being taken by the United Nations, international agencies and governments constitute a tokenism that is breathtaking in the extreme.
And it is no longer the case that mainly ‘invisible’ species are vanishing: those insects, amphibians and small animals about which you had never even heard, assuming they have been identified and given a name by humans.
You and I are on the brink of driving to extinction some of the most iconic species alive today. For a photo gallery of threatened species, some of which are ‘critically endangered’, see ‘World’s wildlife being pushed to the edge by humans – in pictures’.
If you want to read more about some aspects of the extinction threat, you can do so in these recent reports: ‘World Wildlife Crime Report: Trafficking in protected species’ and ‘2016 Living Planet Report’ which includes these words: ‘The main statistic from the report … shows a 58% decline between 1970 and 2012. This means that, on average, animal populations are roughly half the size they were 42 years ago.’

Petition update · You're Saving Great Apes from Being Massacred and Butchered · Change.org By joining the rapidly growing group of compassionate citizens who have signed PASA’s petition, you’re saving animals from a cruel death and protecting people from Ebola and other fatal diseases. Thank you for helping to stop the horrific illicit trade in the meat of great apes and other endangered species. We need your help to get as many people to sign the petition as possible.

Rod Coronado of Wolf Patrol writes: “Welcome to Wisconsin - Where You Can Buy a Hound Hunt for Bear on Craigslist - Charging $2,000, this bear hunt guide runs 35-40 bear baits, monitored by trail cameras, with a success rate of nearly 100%.”

There should be outrage over unlimited,unlicensed use of hundreds of packs of dogs to hunt bears on our public lands. Most bears are killed when they are 8 months to a year-and-a-half old.

This not a hunt. This is a profitable slaughter at a bear donut restaurant. Come in with the semi-automatics & crossbows to the baited area pick out your target on camera, shoot, & let the dogs have some fun in the killing. Pick up a stray dog, throw her into wolf territory to be killed, & the DNR will compensate the hunter $2,500 from the Endangered Species Fund. Twenty-five dogs have been killed since bear hounding “training” started July 1. I

s this the state of John Muir and Gaylord Nelson? It is defiled — a state with no moral compass. It is set up to disenfranchise those of us fighting to dignify the sanctity of all life and protect the web of life that sustains us all.

The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and other major news outlets have been documenting how the Department of Veterans Affairs, Pentagon, National Institutes of Health, and other agencies spend taxpayers’ money to abuse dogs:

American taxpayers are forced to pay millions of dollars for these studies with virtually no access to information about what’s being done or why and how much it costs. Is this how you want your money spent? Please sign our petition to end wasteful spending and increase transparency and accountability about taxpayer-funded experiments on dogs!

Most agencies including the VA, DOD, FDA and CDC do not reveal details of how our taxpayer dollars are being used for experiments on dogs, but on one of the few projects for which spending data is available, NIH experimenters have used nearly $6 million of taxpayers' money since 2011 to give dogs heart attacks.

Please join us and encourage Members of Congress and the incoming administration to end this wasteful government spending on flawed research. Please sign our petition to end wasteful spending and increase transparency and accountability about taxpayer-funded experiments on dogs!

Lonesome George

Every now and then George closes his eyes for a few centuries the stars stop for the occasion and the sun goes out, his night lit only by dream...

"Hello, big boy," she says, shell new and lustrous, green as the deep sea; and her eyes deep as the dark gems that glow deep where it roots...

George, lifting his nose skyward still seeing her behind his closed eyes moves forwardslow as lava oozing from the bottom of the sea

His scaled feet arch like trees first planted then pulled up from their roots...

"I'm coming," he says.

Written by, Steve Campbell

"Lonesome George" is the name given by biologists to the last surviving male Giant Galapagos Tortoise. There are no surviving females.

The entire Giant Galapagos Tortoise species was destroyed directly by humans. The tortoise's shells were used to make tourist trinkets. The shell is part of the tortoise's body (like turtles). Without their shell, they die much like a human having their skin removed (I imagine, equally as painful).

The animal was usually still alive when it's 'soft' body was cruelly cut out from it's shell. In countries like China, and the Island of Bali, this brutal and unethical practice of live tortoise/turtle slaughter continues.

George is approximately 90 years old. In 2008, great efforts were made to help George produce offspring by fertilizing eggs of a 'close' relative species. Sadly, the experiment failed.

George is the rarest known creature in the world and... the loneliest.